Career

The Trump Organization

Trump is an executive vice president of development and acquisitions. He was also a task adviser and boardroom judge on NBC's The Apprentice[citation needed] His corporate responsibility is the domestic and global expansion of the company's real estate interests.[8] With his father, he has overseen the expansion of the Trump Golf portfolio of properties, increasing the number from three, when he joined the company, in 2006, to over fifteen; with courses in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, California, and Puerto Rico. He identifies and pursues distressed golf properties for domestic and global expansion[citation needed] and has been responsible, with his sister, Ivanka, for the redesign and renovation of Trump National Doral and its Blue Monster course in Miami, Florida.[9]

The Eric Trump Foundation

Trump in 2010

Eric Trump established the Eric Trump Foundation in 2006. According to its website, the purpose was to raise money for terminally-ill children and cancer patients at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.[14]

According to publicly available IRS tax filings to the end of 2014, the foundation has relied solely on fundraising from others at golf events. During that nine-year period, the foundation reported raising a total of $8,054,000.[15]

The foundation has made exclusive use of the Trump Organization's golf courses for fundraising events.[15][16]

In 2014 the Eric Trump Foundation hosted its first annual "Race and Taste 10K" charity event at the Trump Organization's Trump Winery to raise money for St Jude's.[17]

For 2013 and 2014 the foundation reported in its tax filings that it raised $3,123,507 at golf charity events and also that it paid $472,374 of costs for the events hosted at the Trump Organization golf club, categorized as "other direct expenses".[18][19]

Trump said in July 2016 that his father, Donald Trump, had made "hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal donations" to the Eric Trump Foundation in the past, although the Eric Trump Foundation's tax records don't explicitly show such donations. When the Washington Post followed up for evidence, he appeared to backtrack and refused to give details.[20]

Controversies

Trump playing golf, c. 2010

Possible false claims and misuse of funds by the Eric Trump Foundation

The Eric Trump Foundation has advertised that its golf charity events raised money exclusively for St Jude's Children's Research Hospital, with 95-100% of the money raised going toward the charity. However, public tax records show that the foundation applied significant amounts of the funds raised to pay costs of the events to the Trump Organization for use of its facilities, casting doubt on the claim.[21]

Also, the charity directed money raised for St Jude's toward charitable causes other than St Jude's. The foundation made grants to several unrelated charities, including at least three animal welfare organizations and the American Society for Enology and Viticulture, a California wine industry organization.[21]

Trophy hunting

In 2010, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) criticized Trump, a trophy hunter, for an African hunting trip he took with Donald Trump, Jr., his older brother. PETA condemned the pair after photos showed the brothers on an organized safari in Zimbabwe, where they hunted animals.[22] The director general of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, V. Chandenga, issued an official response supporting the brothers and calling any allegations of illegality "baseless" and "false".[23] Both brothers defended their safari via Twitter, affirming their actions as hunters and longtime advocates of the outdoors.[24] Their father also addressed the controversy, saying on TMZ that he fully supported his sons.[24]

Views on sexual harassment in the workplace

On August 2, 2016, in a television appearance on CBS This Morning, Trump was asked to comment on his father's controversial statement to USA Today the previous day in which he said that if his daughter were ever subjected to sexual harassment in the workplace, he hoped she would find another company to work for or switch careers. Eric Trump said, "Ivanka is a strong, powerful woman, she wouldn't allow herself to be objected to it". The younger Trump's comments drew widespread criticism from individuals and organizations claiming that this logic puts the blame for sexual harassment on the victim and contends that only weak women are subject to harassment.[25] Critics included Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor who sued Fox chief executive Roger Ailes for harassment, and Megyn Kelly, a current Fox News anchor.[26]

Personal life

On July 4, 2013, Trump became engaged to longtime girlfriend Lara Lea Yunaska (born October 12, 1982), an associate producer at the syndicated television news program Inside Edition.